Schilling, who underwent chemotherapy last year to treat the cancer that is now in remission, went into graphic detail about the effects decades of chewing tobacco use had on him.

"You will develop sores, you will lose your sense of taste and smell. You will develop lesions. You will lose your gums — they will rot. You will have problems with your teeth for the rest of your life," he wrote.

"You will brush your teeth and your mouth will bleed. Not light blood from your gums, but darker blood from deeper inside your mouth. That's the chew destroying your tissue. You will get message after message, but your addiction will always win, until it wins the biggest battle."

Excrutiating physical pain is just one of the consequences Schilling, 48, now has to deal with as a result of developing a dipping "addiction" during his big-league career with the Phillies, Red Sox and Diamondbacks, among other teams.

"You will risk any chance of seeing your four amazing children graduate high school... You could miss the most important and rewarding days of your life with your beautiful wife Shonda. If cancer kills you, what are you leaving them with? What are you leaving them for?"

As if living in constant fear of the cancer returning weren't bad enough, Schilling is also haunted by the possibility that his tobacco use may have influenced countless impressionable children.

"How many kids will start dipping over the next 32 years because they saw you do it? Do you want that on you?"

Older, wiser and full of regret, Schilling ends his letter to his younger self with a simple message: